ArticleCMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne2023
Household food insecurity and health service use for mental and substance use disorders among children and adolescents in Ontario, Canada.
Article in CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Health outcomes following childhood or adolescent exposure to household food insecurity: a rapid systematic review.Public health nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Food-based interventions to mitigate household food insecurity in Canada: a systematic review.Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice · 2025Pooled it
- Public policy interventions to mitigate household food insecurity in Canada: a systematic review.Public health nutrition · 2024Pooled it
- Universal free school meals and Medicaid spending: evidence from linked education and claims data in Arkansas.Health affairs scholar · 2026Article
- Food Insecurity and Mental Health Among High School Students: Evidence From National and Virginia Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Data.The Journal of school health · 2026Article
- 2025 update of the Greig Health Record: Part 1-what's new?Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2026Review
- Household income among families with autistic children and youths in Canada: a cross-sectional matched cohort study.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Exposure to pollution and climate change-induced food insecurity on depressive symptoms among adolescents in rural areas of Afghanistan.Discover mental health · 2025Article
- Review
- Article
- The association between household food insecurity and healthcare costs among Canadian children.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2024Article
- Household food insecurity is negatively associated with achievement of prenatal intentions to feed only breast milk in the first six months postpartum.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
- Tackling household food insecurity to protect the mental health of children and youth in Canada.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFood insecurity is a serious public health problem and is linked to the mental health of children and adolescents; however, its relationship with mental health service use is unknown. We sought to estimate the association between household food insecurity and contact with health services for mental or substance use disorders among children and adolescents in Ontario, Canada.
methodsWe used health administrative data, linked to 5 waves of the Canadian Community Health Survey, to identify children and adolescents (aged 1-17 yr) who had a household response to the Household Food Security Survey Module. We identified contacts with outpatient and acute care services for mental or substance use disorders in the year before survey completion using administrative data. We estimated prevalence ratios for the association between household food insecurity and use of mental health services, adjusting for several confounding factors.
resultsThe sample included 32 321 children and adolescents, of whom 5216 (16.1%) were living in food-insecure households. Of the total sample, 9.0% had an outpatient contact and 0.6% had an acute care contact for a mental or substance use disorder. Children and adolescents in food-insecure households had a 55% higher prevalence of outpatient contacts (95% confidence interval [CI] 41%-70%), and a 74% higher prevalence of acute care contacts (95% CI 24%-145%) for a mental or substance use disorder, although contacts for substance use disorders were uncommon.
interpretationChildren and adolescents living in a food-insecure household have greater use of health services for mental or substance use disorders than those living in households without food insecurity. Focused efforts to support food-insecure families could improve child and adolescent mental health and reduce strain on the mental health system.
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